There are two major types of vehicle door window arrangements. The first arrangement is that of a sedan-type vehicle door. In the sedan-type vehicle door, the door has a channel that extends above the belt level of the door and encloses a glass window pane when the glass window pane is in its top position. A second type of vehicle door is the hard-top vehicle door wherein the glass, after extending from the belt line of the vehicle door, is totally unsupported above the belt line and mates with the weatherstrip along a door opening of the vehicle. In the hard-top design, the stability of the window glass is totally achieved by its connection with the door below the belt line of the vehicle door.
Many vehicle doors with extendable windows of the hard-top variety have two parallel channels mounted within the interior of the door. A cross arm (as in Lain et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,627), a cable (as in Dupuy, U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,281) or a tape drive (as in Staran et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,941) regulator mechanism is thereafter attached with the vehicle door. Thereafter, the glass window is attached to the channel members via guide blocks to complete the assembly. The various components are then adjusted to assure the proper fit of the window and to prevent any possible binding in the up and down movement of the window.
To reduce costs, and in an attempt to prevent alignment problems, it is desirable to allow the channel members and regulator assembly to be assembled to the vehicle door as one pre-assembled module.
Typically, the channel members will be bridged by a narrow top cross beam and a wide cross beam which supports the window regulator and optional motor. The channel members and the cross beams form a module. The narrow beam is typically attached to the top end of the door. The window glass is then typically attached to the module. A more detailed description of the method of glass attachment to the module may be gained by a review of Wirsing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,595, commonly assigned.
The top beam is joined to the door directly adjacent to the top end of the door, and the glass in an extended position is mated with the weather stripping that surrounds a top edge of the vehicle door opening. To ensure the proper fit of the glass with respect to the door opening, adjustment must be made in the location of the bottom ends of the channel in an inner and outer direction. One channel lower end is first attached to the vehicle to adjust the glass regulator module for proper fit of the window with respect to the door opening. The other channel lower end (typically the front channel in the door) is left unattached. The window is then lowered. The free end allows the module to seek its own location before final attachment. The above process allows the glass/regulator module to seek the best non-binding position for when the glass must again be raised.
The lower end of the front channel must be free to move along three axes until it reaches its final position. A holder is then needed to hold the front channel lower end in its final position which can accommodate its adjustment along three separate axes. It is important to note that this holder must attach with the channel lower end before the adjustments for window glass/weatherstrip mating and window regulator binding prevention are made.